76ers hire former Raptors coach Nick Nurse: report

Nick Nurse doesn’t appear to be moving too far away from the Toronto Raptors.

According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the former Raptors bench boss Nurse has been hired by the Philadelphia 76ers to be their new head coach.

ESPN Sources: Nick Nurse has reached an agreement to become the next coach of the Philadelphia 76ers. Nurse — who won an NBA championship and a coach of year award with Toronto — now gets to coach the 2023 MVP Joel Embiid. pic.twitter.com/SrsXhzx7Y3

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) May 29, 2023

Nurse was fired in April after five seasons in charge of the Raptors, and replaces Doc Rivers, who was let go this spring after three seasons with the 76ers.

Nurse concluded his Toronto tenure with a record of 227-163, and three playoff berths in five seasons to go along with the 2019 NBA championship and 2019-20 NBA Coach of the Year Award.

He remains the head coach of Canada’s senior men’s national team, and is expected to lead them at this year’s FIBA World Cup as well as the 2024 Summer Olympics, should Canada qualify.

Oddly, it’s a bit of a full circle moment for Nurse, who brought his own future with the Raptors into question during a press conference in Philadelphia earlier this season.

“I think that 10 years is a good time to sit back and reflect a little bit. I think we’re going to do that all when the season ends,” Nurse told reporters in Philadelphia on March 31. “Even personally I’m gonna take a few weeks to see where I’m at, where my head’s at, to see how the relationship with the organization is and everything. It’s been 10 years for me now, which is a pretty good run.”

The 76ers and Raptors have had two previous postseason run-ins with Nurse on Toronto’s bench, with each side taking a series: Toronto in 2019 and Philadelphia in 2022. However, Philadelphia’s never quite lived up to the high expectations of their fans over the last few decades, failing to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals (or further) in every season since beating the Raptors in a second-round series in 2001.

Nurse has had public spats through the media with 76ers star and 2022-23 NBA MVP Joel Embiid, so it’ll be interesting to see how that relationship develops, or if they’re able to make the partnership work.

In last year’s playoff series, Embiid accused Nurse of “bitching” at foul calls following Philadelphia’s Game 2 win over the Raptors.

More to come…

You might also like:
• Bucks steal Raptors assistant and make him their new head coach